Originally Posted by
TSORon
He brought the C4 back with him from the war, stored it for a couple of weeks in his garage, then took it with him on the flight in question. Most likely he flew back from Afghanistan using a military contract flight, if not an actual military flight, and would not have been screened by the TSA. How he got from his flight termination point to his home is a good question, and may not have involved a commercial flight.
Several weeks earlier this individual was the subject of another EIR with TSA. The item he was carrying then contained parts that were designed specifically as a detonator.
Military hops do not use the TSA for screening. Sounds to me like he never went through a TSA checkpoint until he was found with the smoke grenade (initiator), and then again with the C4.
Are you trying to obfuscate with your discussion of military hops or are you just confused? Military hops are not part of this equation.
You state, "He brought the C4 back with him from the war, stored it for a couple of weeks in his garage, then took it with him on the flight in question." You conveniently skipped over the crux of the issue: how did the C4 make it from his garage in North Carolina to Texas. You admit that he went through a TSA checkpoint on his trip from NC to Texas as that is when the smoke grenade was found. The issue is whether the C4 was also in the carry-on and missed.
"The item he was carrying then contained parts that were designed specifically as a detonator" makes it sounds ominous and a nefarious plot as opposed to the item being a "smoke grenade (initiator)". I'm not trying to minimize the damage that can be done with releasing a smoke grenade in an airplane, but I wouldn't think that if someone was trying to smuggle a detonator on board, they would do it in the guise of a smoke grenade.